Well, one of my MTB Conrail SWs has stopped running today. The directional lighting works just fine, but the motor refuses to budge. I did get more life out of the motor before it stopped compared to the original four MTB SWs that I ordered years ago. I would estimate that the motor in this SW has run for about 400 hours before failure, rather than the 50 hours that I got out of my N&W SW.

I am not that upset, as I am still working on a repowering program for the entirety of my MTB SW fleet, but being down such a pretty engine is a little disappointing.

With Mashima no longer producing motors, does anyone know where to start the search for a new motor system?

AstroGoat760 wrote:Well, one of my MTB Conrail SWs has stopped running today. The directional lighting works just fine, but the motor refuses to budge. I did get more life out of the motor before it stopped compared to the original four MTB SWs that I ordered years ago. I would estimate that the motor in this SW has run for about 400 hours before failure, rather than the 50 hours that I got out of my N&W SW.

I am not that upset, as I am still working on a repowering program for the entirety of my MTB SW fleet, but being down such a pretty engine is a little disappointing.

With Mashima no longer producing motors, does anyone know where to start the search for a new motor system?

If you are looking for dual axle motors, last time Mitsumi motors were available on many e-shops.

AstroGoat760 wrote:Well, one of my MTB Conrail SWs has stopped running today. The directional lighting works just fine, but the motor refuses to budge. I did get more life out of the motor before it stopped compared to the original four MTB SWs that I ordered years ago. I would estimate that the motor in this SW has run for about 400 hours before failure, rather than the 50 hours that I got out of my N&W SW.

I am not that upset, as I am still working on a repowering program for the entirety of my MTB SW fleet, but being down such a pretty engine is a little disappointing.

With Mashima no longer producing motors, does anyone know where to start the search for a new motor system?

If you are looking for dual axle motors, last time Mitsumi motors were available on many e-shops.

The Canon motors are mostly high precision motors. They were not made for model railroads (or at least I do not know any manufacturer who used Canon motors for trains). I build 2 models many years ago with Canon motors (originally designed for video recorders or cameras), no one was really a satisfying option. One motor was too slow the second one was too weak for trains. Finally I replaced both motors with Bühler and Roco (N-scale motor). My motors were completely encapsulated - no idea about their internal construction.Probably the Canon motor requires completely different drive chain.I did not test the Mitsumi motors in models yet, but are definitively closer to the model train motors in speed and construction.

krokodil wrote:The Canon motors are mostly high precision motors. They were not made for model railroads (or at least I do not know any manufacturer who used Canon motors for trains). I build 2 models many years ago with Canon motors (originally designed for video recorders or cameras), no one was really a satisfying option. One motor was too slow the second one was too weak for trains. Finally I replaced both motors with Bühler and Roco (N-scale motor). My motors were completely encapsulated - no idea about their internal construction.Probably the Canon motor requires completely different drive chain.I did not test the Mitsumi motors in models yet, but are definitively closer to the model train motors in speed and construction.